Stay on topic please.
Stay on topic please.
Quite decent. Didn't really like the money talk. And the COTY was funny as hell. SIRPC was intresting. I will look into his music for sure.
Last edited by dsmith; January 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 PM.
One of the best in my opinion, the right balance between car show and cocking about.
10/10, make series 15 like this please
Bleh, the car reviews were good. I liked them all, especially the editing for the LFA.
Was disappointing that Seasick Steve was the actual guest. Some parts were funny, but didn't like it that they were trying to get the show over as quickly as possible.
I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. 9/10.
Good stuff, even some of the 'filler' worked well (trike/skateboard race).
I'm just glad the Golden Cock returned after last year's forgetting it.
Padding aside, i really liked this episode actually. The studio d*cking stuff is the kind of stuff i like, because it tends to be more spontaneous and less scripted! Plus call me a bore but i actually liked the talk about the road signs too.
Who wants to bet there's a Daily Mail article at some point in the next week about how Top Gear 'squanders licence payers money on sending Jeremy Clarkson on a world tour'
More of that please
Though surprisingly that James May segment especially was a lot more like pre-2002 Top Gear....but i really liked it....
Very good... though the fact that the announced guest was not a dupe blew it slightly. I would have preferred the pair of guests that was mentioned by someone somewhere.
9/10.
Haven't seen the show yet, but I just thought I'd make the statement that 2 person SIARPC does not work!Originally Posted by vikiradTG2007
It works when you've got as SIARPCs two mates who happen to be ex-F1 drivers and employed by the BBC. That's what I was hoping for and what was suggested somewhere.
This was great! Didn't care about the awards part much, but everything else was very good. Clarkson's X6 review was good classic TG, both of the other reviews very good too, and even the SIARPC was very interesting this week. It seems that when you just about don't expect it anymore, they come up with a great show. More of this in series 15 please.
Weird - "cheapest" episode happens to be one of the most enjoyable!
I want that LFA. Sounded like an F1 car, and loved the geek-o-matic dash.
SIARPC was actually good (including what was stood behind Clarkson) and the X6 review was entertaining. James' review was also good- the addition of the sign lady made it more like one of his standalone programs.
Good work guys, gave it a 9.
Enjoyable show, didn't like the blather but enjoyed the back-to-basics car stuff. I'd never heard of Seasick Steve and thought he was either genuinely a tramp or just someone playing a tramp - either way, a joke guest that would have been unbelievably irritating (rather like when Schumacher was on and they did some 'funny' stuff together before the real interview began). Pleasantly surprised by him.
I didn't like Jezza's film - it was kind of funny at the beginning, but I did begin to wish they'd spent the money more wisely. There are much cheaper ways of telling the audience how shit the X6 is and making a film that wastes money, with the joke being about how much money it's wasted, feels like a waste.
Road sign segment was interesting, I like geeky things like that. I almost wish they'd do an episode where they just let James explain how cars work in massive detail. Rather like when he and Jezza did the 'which car was the first to be laid out like a modern car' film, and he began to talk about dog clutches and brake bands, and I really wanted to hear the rest of that bit, but then Jezza fell over. Obviously Top Gear's not the show for that, but when those little bits and pieces slip through I really like them.
Last edited by essentialatom; January 3rd, 2010 at 9:26 PM.____________________________
Gave it a 9/10 it was a really good well balanced episode, very enjoyable.
Best episode for a long time (excluding Bolivia).
Lexus: great editing, great review
news: I laughed a lot, electric stuff reminded me of a TGA episode.
X6: great review, it felt really honest. Also very funny with all the different locations.
Siarpc: seen worse, seen better. Nice to hear they are thinking on replacing it.
Vxr: again, good, solid review.
Awards: good choises.
also nice to see them being honest about the filming date and JC screwing up.
And it really felt like behind the scenes epp, seeing the crew And all.
Very good episode: 10/10.
Last edited by gtrNL; January 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 PM.
Funny how they must have worked on Jezza's X6 review for the whole year, filming each segment whenever he visited the places we've seen. I wonder who filmed the segment on Bermulda. Must have been his wife or one of his kids.
Starting off with the Lexus review - well it certainly seems like the production crew have got themselves a new editing programAs for the review itself - absolutely wonderful to have Hammond doing a proper supercar review again - and he did it so brilliantly it just worked. And the cinematography from Topgear yet again excels itself - a true joy to watch.
Onto Clarkson's X6 review. Very funny, and very well put together. An 'out of house' review that worked a lot better than the norm - driving round country lanes with some static shots in a carpark somewhere - this one was much more enjoyable. A refreshing pair of reviews to start us off, that's for sure.
The news/looking at cars from next year/this year was pretty good. May's talk on the upcoming/new/released Saab was/is very funny, despite the fact it didn't/wont make much sense
Seasick Steve was a much better guest than I expected him to be. He just seemed like a nice bloke - not there to advertise anything majorly - just there to have a bit of fun and a good chat. The time was irrelevant, because I enjoyed watching him. TG needs more guests like that.
The filler also did good from the usual - something to use the studio other than to fill up with people (which they clearly have been having less of recently - no bad thing at all). I'm a fan of filler when done well - which this was. Hammond's crash was very funny, too.
James' review of the Vauxhall was OK, but it sort of let the side down a bit. The 'save money' thing is fine - they could have used that very well. However James is simply too boring to do decent car reviews. The Zonda one was too short, and this was just too boring. Sure it may have been pretty interesting with the road-sign lady, and the initial review of the car was pretty good, but it went on too long. Way too long. And maybe 3 reviews filling one episode is what many would say is what Topgear should be - it isn't what I say. Maybe something other than a simple review could have filled the time more entertainingly.
If I was in charge, I would have cut out the woman completely, had a short (but pretty good) review of the VXR, then cut back to the studio for a slightly extended awards and Cool Wall segment. They could have made more jokes about 'lets do something cheap so we don't actually have to go anywhere'. Certainly would have been funnier than the unfunny signs, and Jeremy's extension-clapping.
The awards themselves were more on Topgear form, being funny, but they could have had more awards to piss about on - like worst car etc. And then as I said - use up time with the Cool Wall not trying too hard to be funny.
Overall a very good episode, just that the last 20 minutes could have done with more work. I certainly want to see more reviews like the first two in the new series. And more guests like Seasick Steve. 9/10 - let down by the poor ending set up.
Not sure how to score this but here goes.
Lexus LFA - nice to see Hammond do a track test. Unlike Clarkson who trots out tired old cliches he really thought about what he was going to say. Visuals and effects really worked and the sound was epic.
News - much more like the old times. It felt they were enjoying themselves and some of the spontaneity had returned. They even allowed May to get his pont across for once. Hammond crashing into the presents on the skateboard was, pardon the pun, a bit hammy and detracted a little, although James seemed to be enjoying himself nonetheless. Would have liked to see the GOCYCLE built and ridden.
BMW X6 - a proper on road review from JC? Wonders will never cease although the globe-trotting gag got old very quickly. At least for once he was justified IMHO in picking the British product over a car that to my mind has no raison d'etre whatsoever.
SIARPC - While I was initially saddened that it wasn't Coulthard and Brundle as rumoured I thought Seasick Steve was one of the most interesting characters they've had on on a long while and I was grinning like an idiot by the time it had finished.
At this point I was at a 9 (point lost for Hammond crashing the skateboard/Jeremy's world tour gag, half a point each)
Then sadly they took a great idea - the history of UK road signs which James could do brilliantly well in his sleep - and managed, somehow, to make it dull and embarassing to watch. I was actually cringing on his behalf towards the end.
And followed it up with the Awards which felt a little forced. The Car of the Year had obviously no point at all apart from the "stripe" gag and most of the rest was a little contrived, although the Veyron as car of the decade I have to agree with using their critiera at least.
Halfway through I was looking at a solid 9 and maybe even a 10 for bringing back the old TG feelings but after the guest spot they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory so sadly, for me, they scrape a 6.5 which will round up to a 7.
Still at least from the first 35-40 minutes it shows they do still know how to do it. Perhaps they might listen to us this (next) year after all?
EDIT: And my vote for the Most Distracting Audience Member to date of not of all time goes to the stunning and very classy looking brunette over Jeremy's left shoulder during SIARPC. Wow!
Last edited by MWF; January 3rd, 2010 at 9:34 PM.____________________________
Remind me never to have him round to dinner!
I giggled at Jezza's "To find out, I went to...." review. I loved how he went to Hong Kong just to make a metaphor
The new, meh. The "next year, I mean this year!!" stuff got bit old, but I liked all the Hammond's midlife crisis stuff.
Hammond's Lexus review. The graphics were cool ( before they went a bit overboard towards the end), I love Hamster's giddiness in his reviews
Seastick Steve. I didn't know what to make of him at first because I'd never heard of him. But he was really entertaining.
James review. To be honest, I was falling asleep when yer one was talking about the history of road signs.
The Awards "Stig, give me the Cock!!"
LOVED the gadgets. It reminded me of when they went on the Late Late Toy Show in 2008
Overall, 7.5/10. It lost marks for the sign lady and the kind of annoying graphics, but got back marks for the excellent guest, the awards and the gadgets.
a good fun show, enjoyed all of it. Even the guest was good. But for some reason I gave it an 8, now feeling should have been higher, I'm still stuck in Bolivia!!
Also this really should have been the Christmas show I think.
Odd how the 'cheap' episode turned out to be one of the more solid episodes in a season that has been lacking a bit.
The LFA review was probably for me the review of the season and i loved the editing and effects used in the episode. It reminded me a lot of the Sin City style (not only the film but the comic book itself as well). I for the life of me though cannot see how Lexus could have charged so much for that car. Between that and the Nissan GT-R i know the GT-R would win hands down every time.
The News was fun and was a mixture of their clowning around and looking at cars coming up. Hammond crashing into the presents was scripted but i still found it funny and i can't complain about that. The race around the Top Gear studio was different and it reminded me a lot of early Top Gear.
Jeremy's review was much like Hammonds in that it was well thought out and edited. Good fun and while not as great as Hammond's, it was still fun to watch.
The SIARPC was interesting to watch, but as Mineworksfine pointed out. I too noticed the incredibly hot brunette behind Jeremy in that segment. they could have carried on with that interview as long as they wanted. for once i would not have objected to a extended SIARPC segment.
James' review had the chance to shine and i honestly expected it to be the sort of thing he would really excel at but it did seem to drag on a bit longer than was necessary and it was probably the only point in the show where i thought it really needed to hit the gas pedal.
The Awards segment was fun, couldn't help but laugh at Hammond trying to get the golden cock back from the Stig. I do agree with the Car of the Decade. As soon as they started talking about potential cars the only one that came to my mind was the Veyron. just because of the engineering and technological leap it pushed in.
Good episode and i did notice that they mentioned that they are looking at changing the SIARPC car for the next series. Sure that thread in the forum will light up again. 8/10 for that one, James' review was the only part that seriously harmed the episode.
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